Dangerous Diplomacy
by mkp2008
Summary: In which Aurora is more clever than anyone gives her credit for, and Hook under (or over) estimates her because of it. (K to be safe!)


A/N: 1. I own nothing. 2. This was written back during the winter hiatus as an idea I had for season 3, and was meant to be the first chapter of the full story. However, my creative juices ran out (i.e. I thought up better ideas so this became a one-shot of sorts). The original story idea was simply: Jafar was the big bad (I believe someone, probably Henry, had unintentionally broken his lamp, so genie-Jafar is now free and bent on taking over). He had an army of villians under him and was seeking/rule: the heroes, Fairy Tale Land, Storybrook (Earth), etc. It's the brink of war as he is about to invade, cue this town hall meeting. AND SCENE.

* * *

"Well…haven't you ever heard of the enemy of my enemy is my friend?" Emma said exasperatedly looking at him in disbelief. Hook snorted.

"This…Jafar fellow is less my enemy than him." Hook pointed over towards Mr. Gold disdainfully.

"So no, I will not help you or your friends in this battle. I'm going back to my world." He said directly turning on his heel and heading towards the door.

"If we don't stop Jafar that world, your world may not exist anymore." Emma yelled after him. He stopped and looked over his shoulder with a shrug and a raised eyebrow.

"Then I'll find a new one. Go back to Neverland or perhaps Wonderland. I've even heard of a world where there's a whole city of emeralds. I could make many a pretty penny there." He said dryly turning back to the door.

"Unbelievable." He heard Emma mutter. He didn't really care. These people, this Storybrooke, was nothing to him. Why should he risk his safety? Especially if helping them meant being allied with the Crocodile. No. There was no way he was getting involved. Yes, they had his ship. But he could get a new one. A better one. Or just steal his back. Yes, that would do.

"Wait." A voice he hadn't expected.

"Killian, please." The normally soft voice held an odd strength to it and at the same time a certain tenderness. He paused and turned back if only to see the Princess's expression. Aurora was standing straight having walked towards him presumably only stopping because he had. He raised an eyebrow.

"Yes Princess?" This was getting tedious but his insufferable curiosity (and the use of his name) got the better of him so he waited.

"Please stay." She said simply. It was a delicate request in a delicate voice yet it was somehow strong as well. She was a princess though; diplomacy probably ran through her more than blood.

"Why should I stay Princess?" He asked crossing his arms studying her face. Expressionless but something was in her eyes he couldn't quite place.

"Because I want you to." The slightly smug look that was his curious face fell rather quickly and he blinked a few times rapidly. Out of all the things in all the worlds that could have been said, that was not what he was expecting.

"We need you Killian. We need your skills." She continued softly.

"I understand not wanting to work with someone you hate, but if I can forgive the person who took my heart out of desperation for something he wanted, I would hope you can forgive the man who took your hand for the same reason." She said with that tenderness back in her voice though her expression never changed. Hook frowned.

"Well Princess that was your choice. I'm not you. I'm not forgiving. I'm a pirate, it would suit me ill." He ground out preparing to turn and leave no matter what else was said or by who.

"Then don't forgive him." She said simply yet again catching him off his guard as well as the others in the room who he could see staring in shock.

"If piracy is what you want then we will pay you handsomely with treasure for your services." Hook narrowed his eyes not bother to disguise his scrutiny of her this time. Any pirate could walk away from needy people any day but a good pirate never walked away from treasure. He saw Emma open her mouth but Aurora must have heard it as she raised a royal hand to silence anyone but him who wanted to speak.

"Here. Take it." She said calmly reaching up to her head and gently removing the jeweled diadem and holding it out to him. The last royal relic from a lost kingdom was worth a fortune, let alone some of said lost kingdom's crown jewels. He could retire and buy anything he wanted with that. He couldn't, wouldn't, take it though. Yes he was a pirate, a treasure hungry, revenge fueled pirate; but he simply couldn't take the last remnants of a princess's royalty. At least not hers.

"I won't take your royal jewels Princess." He said stated simply turning away heading to the door.

"Please." He stopped again and looked over his shoulder. She hadn't moved but her eyes where boring into him so directly he felt almost pressured.

"I have no land, no kingdom, no people. I am not a princess anymore and have no need for a princess's jewels, though you could no doubt find use or at least gold to be made off of them." He turned back walking towards her.

"You're right Princess. You have nothing there or here. If you don't want me to leave, then come with me." He was almost hurt by what she had said but not in a sad way in a…he narrowed his eyes.

"No Killian. I may not have people, but these people have me. I will stand with them, fight with them. If you will not help us for our sake, for my sake, help us because we will pay you. We need you." She said placing the diadem on his hook and stepping back. She was clever. More than clever than anyone in that spit of a place called Storybrooke realized.

His pride, that was what was hurt. If he walked away now, refusing treasure and the request of lovely gentle woman who was humble enough to admit she needed him, he was a pitiful pirate and an ass of a man; and even though he could deal with being an ass of a man, he was and would always be the best pirate to ever live. Yes he could just walk away but he wouldn't and she knew it. No, she had well and truly…what was the term? Ah, yes, she had well and truly screwed him. He looked down at her and bit the inside of his lip thinking. He had to throw this back on her somehow and then he thought of it and smirked.

"I will stay Princess if YOU want me to. I will stay for you and work with you and you alone if you want me so badly. No jewels needed. " He said with a smirk offering his hook out to her. She may have forgiven him (he refused to actually think about it) but he knew she hated him still. The thought of being stuck with him should have been more than enough to make her recant the offer and he could be on his merry way. He saw the subtle movement of her jaw tightening and her eyes suddenly looked just a bit more steely. She had pride too and he had just played on it.

"Is that a yes, you will help?" And back to him the conversation went.

"For you only love, if I ever feel you don't want me, I'm gone. If anything happens to you, I'm gone. And I will work with no one else, especially not the crocodile."

"Aurora…" Snow's voice floated over and there went that regal hand again signaling for silence. Aurora then moved said regal hand and held it out in front of him.

"If it means your help, then yes. I agree to your terms." The pride play hadn't worked. They really were desperate, or at least she thought they were. Good pirates did what they wanted, but great pirates always had a code. Going back on his word to her now would be against his. He placed his hand out grasping hers but instead of a hand shake which she seemed to be expecting he pulled her hand up gently and kissed the back of it. As he let go of her hand he looked directly into her eyes.

"Well then Princess, you've got yourself a pirate." She glared lightly at him before turning to the group behind her.

"We have our Navy Captain." She said nodding to Emma and Snow both of whom looked nervous.

"He is my responsibility. I will see to it that our Captain performs his duties." He was surprised by how her calm demeanor left no room for argument.

"Are you sure Aurora? I mean we…" Emma started. Aurora raised the silencing hand again.

"We have agreed to those conditions, he will only help so long as I want his help. Telling me what we need of him will ensure that I always have want of him." Various looks of surprise (and one look of amusement from the wolf girl) scattered across the others and Hook smirked despite trying to look bored. Oh she was clever indeed. He wasn't happy at all about being arm twisted into helping but at least it seemed like Aurora might be… more interesting than he thought. And who was he to pass up the opportunity to ruffle the feathers of a royal?

"Well I think that um….wraps up the meeting." Charming said awkwardly as he clapped his hands together looking around as if he was waiting for someone to concur.

"Yes, I believe it does." Gold said leaning on his cane pointedly not looking in Hook's direction. Aurora nodded and turned sharply breezing past him as everyone else started to disperse. Hook pivoted and took a few quick steps to match then step ahead of his princess. Pulling the doors to the court open he bowed in an exaggerating fashion and held his hand out motioning for her to exit. She looked down her nose at him before gliding past him, holding her chin high. He followed behind her amused at her attempts to ignore him. Reaching the door out of the building he hurried in front of her again to hold it open.

"After you Princess." She stopped and looked at him with a bored expression.

"You know, you can just call me Aurora." She stepped past him out onto the sidewalk ignoring him once again. Unfortunately for her, he liked to make it as hard as possible to ignore him. Besides, maybe he could pester her into letting him out of the deal.

"Oh I know Princess." He said falling in step with her.

"I told you, I am not a Princess anymore." She said not acknowledging him in any other way. He raised an eyebrow and turned quickly to step in front of her.

"Darling, I could keep these jewels." He said shaking his hook, which still had the diadem on it before sitting it on her head.

"I could even take your lovely dress." He gently tapped his hook on one the dressed shoulders.

"I could leave you in stark nothingness and people would still know you are every ounce of the royal that you are. Your royal blood is in everything you do." He said softly, gently lifting her chin with his hook and looking her eyes.

"Kingdom or no kingdom, you are and always will be a princess, Princess." That same expressionless look rested on her face and for some reason he sighed almost tiredly dropping his hooked arm to his chest and crossing it with the other.

"You shouldn't run from that." He said honestly. He wouldn't go so far as to say she had impressed him with her diplomacy earlier (even though she had, if only because so few royals had such a demeanor to them anymore).

"Well thank you for your opinion but I hardly think your opinion on royalty is to be trusted." She stood still, no doubt waiting for him to step out of her way.

"You are a prefect diplomat you know." He said stepping to the side and keeping pace with her.

"I mean that was brilliant what you did back there and don't try to say you didn't know what you were doing I know a skillful tongue when I hear it." He said watching her out of the side of his eye. He saw it to, her bottom lip mildly tighten and the corner of her lips pucker just lightly. She was fighting a smile.

"I assure you Captain I have no idea what you're talking about." He smirked.

"Oh you know exactly what I'm talking about Aurora." She paused briefly and cut her eyes over to him. His smirk turned into a smug grin.

"I know how to use first names to." He said in a low voice leaning closer to her. She stepped about an inch to her right in a subtle attempt to regain her space.

"I was simply trying to appeal to the fact that you are human and when that didn't work, I appealed to you as a pirate." She said calmly.

"Oh no Princess, you are far more intelligent than you, let alone anyone else, give credit for. You appealed to me as a man because you put pride as both a man and a pirate in your line of fire. You know a good pirate never walks away from treasure but a great pirate would never take something so valuable when it's the only thing someone has left. Unfortunately for you, I am no great pirate only the best of the good, so I will be having those gems when this little arrangement is over. But for now, they look prettier on you." Hook said looking over and down at her trying to read her expression, at least the look of boredom was gone, it really didn't flatter her. Instead a small pensive expression had replaced it.

"Your empty flattery is useless here Captain. I don't know what you hope to achieve with it." She said flatly but the look was still there as she paused in her step and he stopped to match.

"Yes your highness?" He asked as her gaze turned to him.

"You said to come with you if I wanted you to stay. I know you have no intention of taking me with you if or when you leave. So why did you say that?" She looked at him inquisitively. He raised an eyebrow, honestly he had said it because he wanted to get away and didn't care if that meant dragging her with him. She would be far from the worst company he'd had on board and if she truly didn't want to be away from him who was he to turn away a lovely woman? She'd either love life on board and he could make use of her or she would hate it and he could get rid of her by leaving her at the next port.

"Well Princess, I said it because you would never willingly set sail with me. I had hoped you would be so offended by the idea that you would turn away in disgust and I could get off without a problem." As he said it he noticed something her eyes, almost a brief flash of disappointment.

"You're right, I would not be fit for sea. But you should have known I would not give up easily. You insist on calling me Princess, but you didn't think that as a princess I would be accustomed to getting what I want?" She questioned and he saw the fire in eyes. Not angry fire but passionate fire. She was studying him…almost like she didn't believe him. He was genuinely surprised by it, not that he could let on to that fact.

"No, I know how royalty is. This town is bloody seeping in it. I simply thought your hatred of me was stronger than your tenaciousness. I was…wrong." She crossed her arms and he saw the look of triumph in her eyes.

"So, you're saying you underestimated me?" She asked in an almost mocking tone and he found himself starting to smile so he forced it into a smirk.

"Or over-estimated depending on how you look at it. I won't make that mistake again though." A silence fell between them and he found himself wondering what Aurora was thinking. Mostly, he was trying to think of any comeback she might say so he could have a response to it. She was still looking at him with that studious expression when she relaxed and started walking again.

"That's good to know." She said looking over her shoulder back at him.

"Be at the court house at nine o'clock tomorrow morning Hook. If you're not, I will come find you and it will not be pleasant."

"Is that you offering to come to my quarters? If so, I can't wait." He said with his usual smirk.

"Oh no, I won't come in. I think I'll give Charming that job." And with that his smirk vanished.


End file.
